I was able to synchronize the user's ~50 personal contacts the first time. I then added a public contact folder (on the Exchange server) to synchronize. This has never been a problem on any of the other several 8330/9330 and other BB's or even the user's prior BB.

Midway through synchronization, it generated error 0x80040fb3, leaving the BB with half the contents of the public contacts folder. After removing the public folder from the BB Desktop Manager and re-synchronizing, we get just a "Synchronization could not complete successfully" error.

I finally used the Desktop Manager to remove the contacts from the BB and start over. This time, it got to a different point in synchronization before failing.

I have spent now at least six hours removing all contacts, attempting synchronization different ways, moving contacts around among folder to force partial synchronization, wiping the handheld and removing/reinstalling the BB desktop manager, all the with same general result--failure at some point in synchronization.

Because it always eventually fails to synchronize, but not always on the same contact, I do not believe it is content-related. Besides, the problem does not afflict any of our other 20+ BB's.

There is one thing that is relatively unique. This particular user has a VPN connecton between the computer and the BES, so synchronization is somewhat slower than for users on the LAN that includes the BES. That never caused a problem with BB Curves at the remote location, though.